Two NE men charged with impersonating police

Po­lice said Fri­day they have ar­res­ted a sus­pect in con­nec­tion with an in­cid­ent in Holmes­burg in which two men im­per­son­at­ing po­lice of­ficers stopped a pickup truck and hand­cuffed the oc­cu­pants.

Mi­chael Green, 30, of Glen­side, Mont­gomery County, was charged with im­per­son­at­ing a po­lice of­ficer, ag­grav­ated as­sault, rob­bery and re­lated of­fenses.

On Thursday, po­lice said three men rid­ing in a Chevy Sil­verado pickup truck were stopped on the 4300 block of McMe­namy St. at 9:30 p.m. Wed­nes­day by two men who were pos­ing as of­ficers. The fake of­ficers had ar­rived at the scene in a Chevy Malibu that had blue and red flash­ing lights on its grille.

Dur­ing a struggle with the er­satz law­men, one of the vic­tims suffered a broken arm, Lt. John Stan­ford said Thursday at a news brief­ing at po­lice headquar­ters at Eighth and Race streets.

The vic­tims were hand­cuffed in­side the pickup truck but man­aged to es­cape and no­ti­fy po­lice, Stan­ford said, al­though the at­tack­ers made off with the truck.

Be­sides their vehicle, the vic­tims were re­lieved of a couple of cell phones, the lieu­ten­ant ad­ded. One of the two phony cops, both of whom were black, wore a shirt with the word “PO­LICE” on the front of it.

At about 10:30 p.m. Wed­nes­day and about two miles away, a Toyota Camry pulled up be­hind a North­east man’s vehicle in the park­ing lot of a 7-El­ev­en on the 9000 block of Frank­ford Ave. The Camry had flash­ing lights on its dash­board, Stan­ford said, and the oc­cu­pant im­per­son­ated a po­lice of­ficer.

This time, real of­ficers happened to be nearby and ar­res­ted Ju­li­an Collins, 22, of the 2600 block of Welsh Road, Stan­ford said. He said po­lice don’t know if the two in­cid­ents, sim­il­ar as they were, are re­lated.

Any­one who is stopped by po­lice can ask to see an of­ficer’s badge and Po­lice De­part­ment iden­ti­fic­a­tion, the lieu­ten­ant said. If stopped by po­lice in an un­marked vehicle, mo­tor­ists should put on their haz­ard lights and drive to a well-lighted loc­a­tion.

Mo­tor­ists who are not sure they are be­ing stopped by real of­ficers should call 911, ask for a marked unit to come to the scene, give their loc­a­tion and stay in­side their vehicle, Stan­ford said. ••

Re­port­er John Loftus can be reached at 215-354-3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com